I don't need to explain who Tom Green is cause if you're reading this you should know. He innovated tv and he did it pretty early in his life. He created a new genre and he's doing it again. Well wait, he's been doing it again for a while now, but he's crossing a crucial barrier. Moving from original video content on the web sponsored by the same institutions as traditional television to semi-subscription based, supported by the fans, by the audience. He's hacking away at the final chains of traditional media that'll open up the internet and proving the subscription based audience supported model works. We've seen similar audience supported concepts work like Keith and The Girl however Keith and Chemda created a platform; The shows are all free, fans support the show buying merch, stand up cds, etc.. This is different. The significance of which is staggering. Here you pay for access to the library of content. In the KATG model a listener may never buy any merch and a fan on Keith's comedy or Chemda's music may never listen to the show. What Tom is doing is creating a direct cause and effect relationship where the content is the product as apposed to being a platform. This is crucial now due to the massive cost difference in offering audio vs. offering video. While storage and bandwidth costs will come down in the future you just couldn't support video as a platform. Now with the audience deciding the value of the content you only have to please them, it allows the freedom to create; as Tom says it'll "let the artists be artists" and not have to sanitize their work to please a corporate agenda.

This is a message from Tom on the subject:

HEY GANG! :)

May 25, 2009

I am up and eating a delicious pickle. A strange thing to eat for breakfast I am learning. I think pickles are definitely more of a lunch thing. I am excited about this day, this week, and this year. I think I came to some pretty good conclusions about the website here over the weekend. I really want to thank all of our members. Your continued and growing support of The Channel is really helping the creative process. We have been doing this LIVE broadcasting here at the channel for a few short years now, but the membership service is very new. Only about 2 months old. And I can say already that it is a great success. It is becoming easier to focus on shooting and goofing off frankly, now that we have control over our own destiny around here.

See the past 2 years I have essentially been making deals with broadcasters, syndicators, websites, and sponsors. And I really have to say, it has been a real hassle. Not to say that I don't believe in the old model, I do. But it has definitely taken away from the creative process. There always seemed to be too many cooks in the kitchen. And this was on a WEB SHOW!! Can you imagine how picked to death television shows get? See, so this is what we are creating here. A much more liberated and free place to make TV. And I can say, as more members sign up, the more fun and easy it is for us to produce funny shit. I don't have to worry all day anymore!

Honestly, that is what making comedy on TV amounts to sometime. Arguing about what funny is? It never really made any sense to me at all. I always felt that the networks, when producing a comedy show, should just let the artists be artists, the comics be comics, and the broadcasters broadcast.. But they don't. They more often than not insist that they be at the center of creative decisions. They apply demographics and research to the writing process. It becomes far to clinical, and sanitized. And ultimately everything on TV ends up being kind of the same. You know? Like it was all painted with the exact same brush. And that sucks. So this is why I love what we are doing here together and I really thank you for the support.

Today I am going to go hit the streets again and film something ridiculous. Whatever pops in to my head. Just because we can. I will post it tomorrow. Thanks gang!

I will be going LIVE from my living room tonight for a bit. Sign up for our Skype team and I may give you a call on video phone. It'll be good to see ya.

Tom

I thought I'd stop by Facebook this morning(ok it's 1:00pm and I just woke up and happened to go there now-ish, but I was totally working on something cool till early this actual morning[6:40am], so for all intents and purposes this right now is 'morning' for the rest of the post.) and saw they'd updated their Terms of Use now deemed 'Statement of Rights and Responsibilities' which alone probably set at ease at least 30% of its outraged users. For the most part it's the same as before except now they've closed a whole lot of legal loopholes that their lawyers didn't see originally, specifically the stuff that made the contract completely null and void by virtue of being contradictory and unenforceable, and the language has been revised to be 90% not shady, and in the shady spots to be convoluted enough to throw off an estimated further 45% of disgruntled current and former users. After that there's an estimated 20% that have to use Facebook for work or networking and does so cautiously and then the again [personally] estimated 5% that realizes they couldn't take the social network giant in a legal battle, and that they could easily change their TOS by a few words to something like, "By maintaining a membership you give us lifelong irrevocable consent to use and complete ownership of your content to do with it as we please including all the intellectual works you've posted or may in the future post on Facebook, or have stashed away in your basement" oh wait, they already tried to do that. I meant do something like that again.

So with that said, what are the goods and bads about the new Facebook TOS (a.k.a. [long pandoring name])?

Pros

• It's now legally enforceable and valid - a pro cause all the protection they claim to provide, they now actually mean it and are legally obligated to enforce it. With an invalid document as they had prior they could do ANYTHING with voluntarily submitted content, including identity, by virtue of it being invalid.
• They now have to give 3-7 days notification when they change the TOS, which will allow users the chance to get out at the very least for one TOS revision, more if in that revision they don't choose to change that very statement, in which case you get at least one more use out of the clause.

Cons

• It's now legally enforceable and valid - even though they had carte blanche with your identity, content, and intellectual property with their old invalid agreement, some local laws trumped such behavior. Now that you're signing a valid contract by using their service, the shady things they stipulate are now their legal right.
• Their ownership of your intellectual property, personal information, and identity(name, address, phone number, pictures of you, etc.) is total and unlimited. ANYTHING you post on Facebook belongs to Facebook until you delete it or close your account. The excerpt below may be confusing,  it doesn't give Facebook the right to use anything you post anywhere on Facebook, instead it gives Facebook the right to use anything you post on Facebook or anywhere else on the net in connection with Facebook(and increasing amount of sites including CNN and other big players, there is no stipulation how loose a connection it needs to be) anywhere in The Universe(incl. France, Mars, Texas, TV, Magazines, Patent office, Jive Records, Radio, etc.). While you have some control over their ownership of your content via privacy and application settings there is nothing in the TOS that stipulates Facebook has to give you the ability to control all aspects of their ownership rights. Furthermore there's no stipulation that you need to be notified when they remove or change the wording of privacy and application controls. In fact, there are no Intellectual Property controls mentioned.
  "For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it)."

So what to make of this? Is Facebook less or more shady now? Here's my survival guide for the current TOS:

1. Use Facebook every day. In some cases(when it involves money, and/or you've written an application for Facebook) you only get 3 days warning of TOS changes and knowing Facebook's past stance on the permanency of their rights you don't want to be stuck in that mess. You also need time to say goodbye to your 'friends', once you delete your account, any goodbye message will be hidden from other users; snatched from their inboxes.(The TOS allows them to keep these messages on Facebook but as of yet your stuff disappears)
2. Don't put anything on Facebook or any site that uses 'Facebook Connect' or is in any other way connected with Facebook that you don't want to share equal ownership of with Facebook [and any of it's employees acting in the name of Facebook],  including but not limited to your name, likeness, image, identity, video footage of you or your family, art, poetry, music, or any other creative content. It's worth mentioning again that they can do anything with such content anywhere, for and to anyone.
3. If you have to put personal information up, you know, so people know who you are and so you can interact with them, make sure to double check your privacy settings. Keep a note that all the privacy settings that were there yesterday are still there today, because they can change whenever Facebook pleases without notice of any kind. Hope Facebook gives you controls over how THEY can use your content rather than just what type of friends and other users can view your content.

To reiterate and conclude: fuck facebook, they are at par ethically with people that author malicious viruses and data harvesters. I hope Zuckerberg get's analy raped by big donkey dick and/or if the site should EVER manage to turn a profit for him to turn around and support cancer research or something good that balances out the shameless exploitation of his sheep-like mindless users.

today i'll tie my shoe lace
in a knot but not a bow
a complex net work of order
that order two and fro.
that material ending in plastic
for threading through my shoe,
comes in little aid
when frayed; adieu
adieu i leave this wretched place
was ok for tying two shoes
that's it

into it i climb and nestle
the body of my car.
down i put my new tied shoe
I'll test its mettle far
where the rubber meets the road in a different kind of shoe
one round and rubber and black and bolted to the metallics of my car
the four of them turn two and fro
first front, then back will surely follow

if i were to keep a spare shoe in my trunk
it would only slow me down
not my car my car's the opposite
if i were a car i'd frown
but it's always standing, standing on
it's tired little rounded feet
flying 80 miles an hour
down the fricken street.

BANG a duck, i've smashed in too
before i hit the wall
i noticed some yellow, some fluff, and white and you
it's stuck against a mall

to crash is actually quite a shock
the duck i'm sure agrees
besides the duck, i'm stuck as well
i'm buckled at the knees

my legs are turned up in side out
they're pointing at the face
accusing me of some foul act that
i can almost taste

i don't see my shoes no more
no duck no car no wall
down the road along the edge
oh no oh my i'll fall

quickly move to safety
in the middle of the street
exactly where a speeding truck
lifts me off my feet

swiftly to the air i flew
embodying the duck
who still remains against the wall
he isn't in the truck

out the truck the driver dove
he tucked and braced and rolled
his head he did not quite protect
and now he's but a fold

still flying through the air i knew
a truck i'm in it's path
it swerved left and rolled right up over itself
any one could do the math

BANG i'm stuck, almost taboo
a sandwhich with the ground
from now on it's all i'll be
lights out, lights down, a frown

WolframAlpha.com is kind of like Google but instead of fetching web results it fetches data. I just spent about 20 minutes playing with it and it's pretty incredible.

Here's a link to a screencast demonstrating some of the main features: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

They're in the process of launching, the site is live right now but they're working out the kinks in their cluster/server setup trying to officially launch by Monday. Cool that they're showing behind the scenes like that.

Watch live video from Wolfram|Alpha on Justin.tv

I just threw out my TV and I feel ok about it. You think something bad's gonna happen when you do, but nothing did.

Over the last 2/3 years i kinda stopped watching cable tv. I was never just sitting around doing nothing when the shows I liked came on so I used to just watch them online(if it was 'available in my region') or torrent the episodes and play them on my 1st gen softmodded xbmc xbox which was, hooked up to a tv. Recently I came to find two things:

1. I didn't really care enough to download new episodes of stuff
2. I found a whole lot more shows I liked and started trying to get in front of the tv when they were on

oh yeah and a 3rd thing:

3. The only thing I've really gained from tv is hours and hours of lost time. Fleeting precious hours gone watching people cook things I'll never eat, talk to people I'll never meet, places I'll never go and events that will never affect me.

Some days I'd watch CNN for hours, I'd even leave it on while I worked so I could keep up with what was happening in the world and to make sure I listened to the same story told by 8 different groups of people throughout the day. I now know a ton about the inner workings of the U.S. government and virtually nothing about Canadian politics. At least I find that fact funny, or maybe it's more amazing than funny... In my defence this was partly due to a need to understand the deeper layers of what Jon Stewart was talking about, but also partly to understand the even deeper layers of what Stephen Colbert was parodying. I've seen Iron Chef so many times I'm a pro when there's only 1 thing in my fridge and I have to make a 7 course meal. Thanks to Gordan Ramsay I could help any restaurant turn a profit and get their shit together and I feel really comfortable yelling at cooks in a scottish accent. I got to see The Simpsons lose their subtlety and finesse (quite frankly a little piece of me died), and developed ADHD from watching Family Guy, and American Dad. If I ever end up working in a cubicle I'll find it hillarious thanks to the Office. I reaffirmed my vegetarianism watching Anthony Bourdain visit Egypt where a bunch of guys murdered and chopped up a camel before feeding it to him. I now see that it's possible to be a somewhat modern family and practice polygamy thanks to Big Love. Thanks to House I now know for sure that it is really all about the doctors and their egos or perks.. depending on the doctor. They also never show any nurses, anyone who's met at least one nurse and at least one doctor knows that there wouldn't be a functional health care system anywhere without nurses. Without nurses healthcare would be more like factory farming--cold sterile and abusive. Myth Busters is one of the best shows to ever exist by far. Last night was the season premier, the first time I'd ever seen a show that wasn't a repeat which are on all the time cause it's such a great show. It was a 2 hour special of blowing things up and smashing other things. It was late, I was tired, and I feel asleep halfway through. The fact that I missed the other half, doesn't really bother me at all. Watching Jimmy Fallon burst out of the whomb was interesting, but since I'm not a movie critic I've got nowhere to put all my comments. The Roots are the only thing that made it watchable. I feel like I might regret watching Conan's first week, but let's be honest, tonight, late night, late late night.. Every night is really just the same infomercial with the same monologue and slightly different guests reading from a script promoting the next thing on tv or movie they're working on. Planting a little seed so by the time you see the trailer or the promos you've got yourself a little seedling and when it's d-day and you've got to tune in or drive down to the movies you're just dying to buy your ticket to another crappy flick. It's all the same crap though. Watch one season of one show and you get it, you don't have to watch anything else ever, you could come back in 50 years and watch the newest plasma hologram show and you'll see all the jokes coming from a mile away. It's like trying to listen to more than one Bill Hicks album in a day without hoping and praying to find a shotgun delivery service in the local yellow pages. ITS THE SAME SHIT on loop. Break your TV, SMASH your tv... throw it out on the curb, unplug it and melt it down for the uncompromizing soul sucking leach that it is and has been all your life and be free. That is my gift to you, the 5 people that will ever read this. Freedom. It's a cold lifeless dying medium who's only unique contrabutions to the universe are infomercials and made for tv movies. Two things that if left unchecked for too long could flatten the earth all by themselves, individually or together. A medium centered around selling you shit you don't need and don't want. Carson Daly's new format is pretty cool, it's up there with MythBusters, it is. Live music, artist interviews--not the cheesy obviously scripted kind from other shows, but you know what, some content shouldn't be locked up on tv. The few good shows in the sea of crap aren't worth it. Besides there's a pretty spankin' music scene around here and as cool as Carson is it still doesn't beat actually being there. Flight of The Concords,  The Sarah Silverman Program, and tons of other not as good are just the next trend of suedo reality. Triggered by Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and popularized by viewers who got sick of pathetic 'reality shows' especially when they found out during the writer's strike actually had writers. I won't deny that there are some great shows out there but I'd rather get the finished compiled version,  commercial free, comentary, and not have to revolve my life around the schedule of a glass rectangle. "Technology will one day enslave us" is the phrase uttered by someone who hasn't yet taken a step back to see what's happened over the last 110 years.

Hopefully with this post I've released all this useless fucking knowledge back into the ether from where it came. I did it in the hopes that I get a little real estate back that can once again be used to host useful things. Things like thoughts and ideas, and with the extra time maybe, just maybe I can implement one or two of them.

I drew this the other day while waiting for someone. Grabbed a photo of it with my phone since I wasn't keeping it.